J&K Open 2024: Baisoya, Bhattacharya share honours after round one

Jammu, Oct 23 (IANS) The Delhi duo of Sachin Baisoya and Shaurya Bhattacharya shot scores of five-under 67 to share the honours in Round One of the J&K Open 2024 being played at the Jammu Tawi Golf Course (JTGC) in Jammu. Udayan Mane, Akshay Sharma, Arjun Prasad and Kapil Kumar were tied for third place with scores of 68. Sachin Baisoya, who finished in the top 10 in seven of the last eight PGTI events, began the week with a birdie on the first hole then had a quiet spell till the eighth where he picked up a tap-in birdie.

Baisoya's only bogey on the ninth was followed by a solid back-nine where he picked up four more strokes. On the back nine, he made a couple of long conversions and landed his tee shot within inches of the flag for birdie on the 17th.

Baisoya said, "My recent form has been good so that gave me a lot of confidence coming into this week. My tee shots were excellent today barring just two holes and that contributed to my good score on this narrow course. Besides the birdies, I also made two quality up and downs for pars on the third and 18th. The key on this course will be to place the ball well off the tee."

Shaurya Bhattacharya had a forgettable start as he bogeyed his first two holes, the 10th and 11th. However, Bhattacharya rallied with four birdies on the back nine thereafter including three conversions from a range of 10 to 18 feet. Bhattacharya continued the good work on the front nine by scoring three more birdies thanks to his terrific hitting.

Bhattacharya said, "The fairways are narrow here at JTGC so keeping the ball in play is very important. That's what I did well today. I gave myself many opportunities and the putter was hot today. I didn't have the best of starts, but knowing that scoring would not be easy here I told myself to create chances and just be ready to grind it out and be patient."